


Somehow Escape the Burning Wait

by macaroni_meangirls



Category: Mean Girls - Richmond/Benjamin/Fey
Genre: ICE raids mention, Ice, Sonja and Janis are the definition of wlw solidarity, Vomit Mention, my headcanon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-20
Updated: 2019-07-20
Packaged: 2020-07-09 08:06:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,387
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19884352
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/macaroni_meangirls/pseuds/macaroni_meangirls
Summary: Sonja's afraid, and with good reason. Janis will do anything to help.





	Somehow Escape the Burning Wait

**Author's Note:**

> This is just my headcanon! I'm starting off with a short little fic, but there will most likely be more of this to come!

“Come on, you’ve got this,” Janis encourages, rubbing Sonja’s shoulder soothingly as her friend buries her head in her hands, racking her brains for the answer. “Just two more on the list, you can do it…”

“God…” Sonja moans, rubbing her eyes so roughly that dark patterns swirl before them as she struggles to find the words she _knows _are lurking in some dark corner of her brain. “Is it the right to remain silent…? No, I said that already…”__

__Janis squeezes her shoulder sympathetically, resting her head on Sonja’s shoulder for a moment in solidarity. “It’s the right to an attorney, okay? You think you can give me the last one?” As Sonja’s browns knit in frustration, Janis squeezes her arm again. “It’s okay, Sonja, you’re doing really well, you’ve got this.”_ _

__“It’s...it’s…” Sonja’s face crumples as she slumps back against the musty seat of the rattling yellow bus, wincing as they bump over a particularly large pothole. “God, Jan, I don’t know…”_ _

__“Okay,” Janis says gently, not removing her support from Sonja’s arm. “The last one was that you can’t be detained unless you’ve been arrested and charged with a crime, okay?”_ _

__Sonja nods shakily, slumping forward to bury her head in her hands once more. “That one - that one’s really important...Jesus, Jan…”_ _

__“I know,” Janis murmurs, slowly wrapping her arm around Sonja. “I know it’s scary. But we’re gonna figure this out, okay? I’ll quiz you as much as you need, I promise.”_ _

__Sonja trembles slightly against her and Janis knows that she’s afraid, with good cause. Ever since the ICE raids were announced, Sonja’s been feverishly preparing, memorizing her rights from the notebook scribbled with every scrap of information she could think of. More than once she’s found Sonja skipping lunch in favor of searching the library or woken up during a sleepover to find her fixated on a computer screen, barely able to keep her eyes open as she scribbles down advice._ _

__She’d always known Sonja was half Latina; her mother speaks Spanish better than English and Sonja often mentions her mom’s hometown of Cuetzalan, a small Mexican town set in the mountains. It had never struck her or Damian or Cady as something to be noticed; she’d never even stopped to think about it until Sonja nearly threw up when the first mention of a raid was brought up._ _

__It was then that the full story came out, as Janis stroked her sweaty bangs back from her forehead and Damian supported a shaking Sonja and Cady sat on the floor beside her, leaning her head against Sonja’s knee in a show of solidarity. Ms. Acquino had met an American exchange student in the marketplace at Cuetzalan and been swept off her feet. Sonja’s father had made all sorts of promises, including a green card, and soon found his way into her bed. Three days before he was due to fly back to Chicago, Ms. Acquino had told him the news: she was carrying their baby._ _

__He smuggled her over the border, his conscience preventing him from leaving his child behind, and nine months later Sonja was born at Holy Cross Hospital in Chicago. When she was two years old, her father’s conscience took a sudden leave and he disappeared on a business trip, only he didn’t come home after the two weeks he’d claimed, leaving Sonja and her mother alone in a strange country to fend for themselves._ _

__And they’d done exactly what the American Dream claimed they should. Ms. Acquino learned English. She started working from her basement and runs a small but successful business selling her sewing. Sonja got a job at fifteen selling shoes and was walking dogs and babysitting kids even before that. They literally pulled themselves up by their bootstraps, and their reward is the impending threat of a raid._ _

Sonja and her mom work harder than the President, and have for years. But that doesn’t matter to anyone. They’re the wrong color.

__Her mom still wasn’t documented, Sonja had managed to gasp out as she clung white-knuckled to the rim of the sink she’d bolted to when the wave of panic-induced queasiness had struck. She’s been living without papers in the U.S. for nearly seventeen years. If ICE found her, they’d arrest and deport her, and Sonja would be powerless to stop it._ _

__Then she really had thrown up._ _

__Remembering the sheer panic in her warm brown eyes, Janis tightens the arm around her shaking friend, ignoring for the moment Cady’s and Damian’s concerned looks from across the aisle. “Sonj...Sonj, it’s gonna be okay.”_ _

__Sonja’s name is pronounced with a _y _, but Janis has been affectionately using the shortened version ending with a _j _sound for years, citing “dyslexia is a bitch” whenever anyone questioned it. At the familiar nickname, she lifts her head up a little, her eyes brightening slightly. “Is it…?’_____ _

______“It is,” Janis promises, hugging her a little tighter at the sting of doubt in her uncharacteristically soft voice. “Me and Caddie and Damian are all gonna be staying over tonight, yeah? It’s fucking _stupid _and _wrong _, but you’re a little safer with us around, right? We’re not gonna let anything happen.”_____ _ _ _ _ _

__________“I don’t know what you can do to stop it,” Sonja mutters, slowly leaning her head on Janis’s shoulder. “If they decide to come in, if they get that warrant...nothing any of us says or does will stop them. They’ll still - they’ll still take my mom.” Her voice hitches over the final sentence in a very unSonja-like way and Janis’s chest closes uncomfortably, like a fist is squeezing tightly over her heart._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________“I’m gonna do everything I can to keep that from happening,” Janis promises, slowly rubbing her hand in smooth circles over her friend’s back as the rattling school bus jolts over another poorly-paved patch of asphalt. “Everyone’s gonna do everything they can.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________“And if that’s not enough…?” Sonja almost whispers, her voice raspy with barely held back tears. Janis flinches a little at the question, because she knows in her heart that Sonja’s right, there’s nothing a few teenagers can do to stop this tide. Not all on their own._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________“I - I don’t know,” Janis admits, a deep, painful sense of failure striking her core as she confesses. “I wish I knew...but I’m gonna do everything I can to keep it from getting there, and if that does happen...I’ll do anything to help, Sonj, anything in my power. I wish I could do more...but that’s all I can promise, and I’m sorry for that, but I promise that much. I’ll do whatever I can.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________For a moment, the only sounds piercing the silence between them are the rumbling of the old bus engine and the whooping of the kids at the back of the bus. Then Sonja slowly wraps her arms around Janis’s neck, clinging to her like a lifeline. “Thank you, Jan…” she breathes, her voice still wavering in a way that the Sonja before the raids would never have allowed. “Thank you so much…”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________“Anything for my lesbian best friend,” Janis promises, hugging her back and ignoring the glares from their other busmates, focusing only on holding Sonja as best she can. “Solidarity forever.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________“Forever,” Sonja echoes, and there’s a hint of a smile in her voice at their years-old pledge. Janis treasures her friendship with Damian; she adores him and can’t imagine life without him, but sometimes there are problems he just can’t understand, problems that another gay girl like Sonja can. They’ve been there for each other since the beginning of eighth grade, two questioning girls just trying to figure out who they were. Sonja had worn her hair down to her waist then, still a few steps away from discovering her identity as a butch lesbian, and Janis had been barely brave enough to wear anything rainbow-colored, much less call herself a lesbian. They had figured it out together, hand in hand, and their simple pledge of solidarity forever means more to Janis than anything else she could say._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________So all she can do is pull Sonja closer, cradling her friend in her arms as the rusty yellow bus jolts over another heavy pothole, and pray that her best will be enough to save her._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _


End file.
